Most accounts executive interview guides test you on the golden rules of accounting. Real interviews do not.
A hiring manager filling an accounts executive seat has one question in mind: can this person handle month-end without supervision? That means reconciliations, GST returns, TDS deposits, vendor queries and a clean handover to the auditor. The theory comes up, but it is the filter, not the decision.
Two things also changed recently that most candidates have not caught up with. GST moved to a two-rate structure in September 2025, and the Income-tax Act, 1961 was replaced on 1 April 2026, which changed the codes you quote on every TDS challan.
This guide covers 35+ questions with model answers, organised the way an interview actually runs.
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What interviewers are testing in 2026
Three things, in this order.
Can you do the work unsupervised? Reconciliations, returns, deposits, ledger hygiene. This is 60% of the decision.
Are you current? GST rates changed in September 2025 and the entire direct tax statute was replaced in April 2026. A candidate who quotes a 28% GST slab or deducts "under 194J" is signalling they have not touched a live system in months.
Do you flag problems or hide them? Every accounts team has been burned by someone who quietly let a mismatch compound. Interviewers probe for this constantly through scenario questions.
Accounting fundamentals
What are the golden rules of accounting?
For personal accounts, debit the receiver and credit the giver. For real accounts, debit what comes in and credit what goes out. For nominal accounts, debit expenses and losses and credit incomes and gains.
What sets you apart: say that in practice you think in terms of the accounting equation and the modern classification — assets, liabilities, equity, income, expenses — because that is how accounting software is structured. Reciting the golden rules alone signals classroom knowledge.
What is the difference between accrual and cash basis accounting?
Accrual recognises income when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash moves. Cash basis recognises them only on receipt or payment. Statutory financial statements follow accrual; cash basis appears in small proprietorship books and in some tax computations.
What is the difference between a provision and a reserve?
A provision is a charge against profit for a known liability or an expected loss whose amount is uncertain — provision for doubtful debts, provision for tax. A reserve is an appropriation of profit, set aside from earnings after they have been determined. Provisions are made whether or not there are profits; reserves are not.
What is a bank reconciliation statement and why does it matter?
A statement reconciling the bank balance per the books with the balance per the bank statement, explaining differences from cheques issued but not presented, deposits not yet credited, bank charges, interest and direct credits. It matters because it is the primary control that catches unrecorded transactions, duplicate entries and fraud.
What is the difference between depreciation and amortisation?
Depreciation allocates the cost of a tangible fixed asset over its useful life; amortisation does the same for intangible assets. The accounting principle is identical — matching cost to the periods benefited.
What are prepaid expenses and accrued expenses?
A prepaid expense is paid in advance for a benefit not yet consumed, and sits as an asset until it is. An accrued expense has been incurred but not yet paid, and sits as a liability. Both exist to make the accrual principle work at period end.
What is a contingent liability?
A possible obligation depending on an uncertain future event, or a present obligation that is not recognised because an outflow is not probable or cannot be measured reliably. It is disclosed in the notes rather than recognised on the balance sheet.
What is the difference between a trial balance and a balance sheet?
A trial balance is an internal listing of all ledger balances used to check that debits equal credits. A balance sheet is a financial statement showing assets, liabilities and equity at a point in time. A tallied trial balance does not prove the books are correct — it only proves they are arithmetically balanced.
What sets you apart: that last sentence. Interviewers use it to separate people who understand controls from people who understand bookkeeping.
What are the main financial statements?
Balance sheet, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and statement of changes in equity, with accompanying notes.
What is working capital?
Current assets minus current liabilities. It measures short-term liquidity. In an accounts role it matters because receivables ageing, payables ageing and inventory turnover are the levers you actually influence.
Questions for accounts executives
What are the current GST rates?
Following the 56th GST Council meeting, the structure moved to a merit rate of 5% and a standard rate of 18%, with a special 40% rate for a narrow set of luxury and sin goods, effective 22 September 2025. The 12% and 28% slabs were abolished. Nil-rated items continue, and gold and silver remain at 3%.
If you answer 5, 12, 18 and 28, you have dated yourself by a year.
What is the difference between CGST, SGST and IGST?
Intra-state supplies attract CGST and SGST, split equally. Inter-state supplies and imports attract a single IGST at the combined rate. The determining factor is place of supply, not where the invoice was raised.
What is input tax credit and what conditions must be met?
Credit for GST paid on business inputs, set off against output liability. You need a valid tax invoice, actual receipt of goods or services, the invoice reflected in your GSTR-2B, tax actually paid by the supplier, your return filed, and payment to the supplier within 180 days.
What is the Invoice Management System and how does it affect your work?
Supplier invoices land on the IMS dashboard, where you accept, reject or keep them pending, and GSTR-2B is generated from those actions. The critical point is that taking no action counts as deemed acceptance — an accounts executive who ignores IMS is accepting every invoice by default.
How do you correct an error in GSTR-3B now?
You generally cannot correct it in GSTR-3B, because the auto-populated outward liability has been hard-locked since the July 2025 tax period. Corrections flow through GSTR-1A before the GSTR-3B for the period is filed. This moved the reconciliation work earlier in the month.
What sets you apart: explaining the workflow consequence, not just the form name.
Read more: GST Interview Questions and Answers 2026
TDS questions for accounts executives
Which Act governs TDS right now?
The Income-tax Act, 2025, is in force from 1 April 2026, which replaced the 1961 Act. TDS is consolidated under Section 392 for salary, Section 393 for non-salary payments to residents and Section 394 for TCS, and challans now use numeric payment codes instead of section numbers.
But FY 2025-26 filings and older assessments continue under the 1961 Act. In practice you are working under both statutes simultaneously right now.
What sets you apart: this single answer, delivered clearly, puts you ahead of most candidates applying in 2026.
When is TDS deducted?
For most non-salary payments, at the time of credit to the payee's account or actual payment, whichever is earlier — including credit to a suspense account. Salary TDS is deducted at actual payment.
What are the due dates for depositing TDS?
By the 7th of the following month for most deductions, with tax deducted in March payable by 30 April.
What happens if a deductee has no PAN?
Tax is deducted at a higher rate, generally the higher of the specified rate or 20%, and the deductee cannot claim credit until it is corrected.
What is Form 26AS?
A consolidated statement showing tax deducted and collected against a PAN, plus advance tax and self-assessment tax paid. It is populated from TDS returns filed by deductors, which is why a wrong PAN in your return silently destroys your vendor's credit.
Read more: TDS Interview Questions and Answers 2026
Tally and software questions
Which accounting software have you worked on?
Answer specifically — TallyPrime, Zoho Books, SAP, Busy, QuickBooks — and say what you did in it, not just that you used it. "I handled purchase and sales voucher entry, GST reports and bank reconciliation in TallyPrime for three companies" beats "I know Tally."
How do you record a purchase with GST in Tally?
Through a purchase voucher with the correct GST ledgers, ensuring the party ledger has a valid GSTIN, the stock item or expense ledger carries the right HSN and tax rate, and the supply type is set correctly so CGST/SGST or IGST is applied based on place of supply.
What did the GST rate change mean for your Tally setup?
Rate masters on stock items and ledgers had to be updated for the new structure, with effective-date-based rate history so that invoices before and after 22 September 2025 both compute correctly. Getting this wrong produces invoices at the old rate and a mismatch at return time.
What sets you apart: mentioning effective-date rate history rather than just "we changed the rates."
What is a bank reconciliation in Tally and how do you do it?
Through the banking section, matching book entries against the bank statement by entering the bank date against each voucher, with the unreconciled balance showing the difference. Most versions support importing a statement to speed this up.
Read more: TallyPrime Interview Questions and Answers 2026
How strong is your Excel?
Name the functions you actually use — VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, pivot tables, conditional formatting, text-to-columns, remove duplicates. Then give a use case: "I reconcile GSTR-2B against the purchase register using a pivot and a lookup on invoice number and GSTIN." Specificity is the whole answer here.
Month-end and practical scenarios
These decide the interview. Prepare all six.
Walk me through your month-end close process.
Cut off entries, post accruals and prepaid adjustments, reconcile bank accounts, reconcile vendor and customer ledgers, verify GST output against GSTR-1 and input against GSTR-2B, verify TDS deducted against TDS deposited, review the trial balance for unusual balances, generate the P&L and balance sheet, and circulate variance notes on anything that moved materially.
Even if your last role only covered part of this, describe the full cycle and be clear about which parts you owned.
Your GSTR-2B shows ₹3 lakh less input credit than your purchase register. What do you do?
Reconcile line by line and classify the gap: invoices in books but not in 2B because the supplier has not filed, invoices in 2B but not in books, rate or amount mismatches, and ineligible credits that should be excluded anyway. Chase the suppliers in the first category, file without claiming the missing credit, and claim it in the period it appears. Never claim the higher figure to make it match.
A vendor says their TDS credit is not showing in 26AS. Walk me through it.
Confirm the deduction in the books, confirm the challan was deposited, confirm the return was filed and processed, then check the PAN quoted in the return against the vendor's actual PAN. A single wrong character is the most common cause. If the PAN is wrong, file a correction statement and share the challan and token details with the vendor.
The trial balance does not tally. How do you find the error?
Check the difference for a pattern — a figure divisible by 9 often means a transposition, and a difference equal to twice an amount often means a debit posted as a credit. Then verify the opening balances, check that all subsidiary ledgers have been posted, review entries made since the last tallied balance, and check for one-sided journal entries. Work from most recent backwards.
You spot an error in a period already reported to management. What do you do?
Quantify it, determine whether it affects a filed return or only internal reporting, and inform your reporting manager the same day with the amount, the cause and the proposed correction. Do not correct it quietly. The interviewer is testing whether you escalate.
How do you handle a vendor demanding payment when the invoice has a GST mismatch?
Hold the disputed portion, not the whole payment, communicate the specific issue in writing with the invoice reference, and give the vendor a route to fix it. Escalate if it recurs, because a supplier who does not file is costing the company real credit. Keep procurement informed since they own the relationship.
HR and behavioural questions
Tell me about yourself.
Sixty to ninety seconds: qualification, the scope you have handled, the systems you use, and one specific thing you improved. Then stop. The most common failure in accounts interviews is a three-minute biographical answer.
Why do you want to leave your current job?
Frame it toward what you want, not away from what you dislike. Wanting broader exposure, statutory work you are not currently getting, or a larger books size are all credible. Never criticise a previous employer or colleague.
How do you handle deadline pressure during closing?
Describe an actual system — a close checklist with owners and dates, starting reconciliations before month end rather than after, flagging blockers early. Then give a specific example.
Tell me about a mistake you made.
Choose a real one with a contained impact, explain how you caught it, what you did immediately, and what control you put in place so it could not recur. Candidates who claim they have never made a mistake are not believed.
What are your salary expectations?
Give a researched range rather than a number, based on the role, your experience and the city, and say you are open to discussing the total package. If pushed for a figure, anchor at the upper part of your range. Ask what the band for the role is if you do not have enough information.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Something coherent with the role — moving from executive to senior executive to assistant manager, taking ownership of statutory compliance, or pursuing CA Inter or CMA alongside work. Avoid answers that imply you will leave accounting.
Questions to ask the interviewer
Ask two or three. Not asking any is read as low interest.
How many entities or books would I be handling?
Which parts of the statutory compliance cycle would sit with me versus a consultant?
What does the month-end calendar look like here?
Which accounting system are you on, and are there plans to change it?
What does success in this role look like at six months?
How to prepare
Be current on the law. The GST rate structure and the new direct tax Act are the two things a 2026 candidate is expected to know. They are also the easiest way to stand out, because most applicants will not.
Prepare six scenarios, not sixty definitions. The practical section above is where offers are decided.
Know your own numbers. How many invoices a month, how many vendors, what turnover, which returns you filed. Vague answers about scope read as inflated experience.
Practise out loud. Explaining a reconciliation under pressure is a different skill from doing one.
Practise with a role-specific AI mock interview on BeSkill and get instant feedback on your answers — browse the Taxation interview library or the finance and accounting interviews.